1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management policy evaluation system for evaluating a management policy for managing IT resources.
2. Description of Related Art
Regarding an information technology (IT) system forming the foundation of the economy and society, there is a requirement for stability, robustness, and economic efficiency. In recent years, in order to maintain the function of an IT system that is being sophisticated more and more in response to the change in an administration environment while keeping stability and robustness, the technique of autonomous processing of the system is becoming indispensable. The autonomous processing refers to that a system takes over a part of determination, which has been conducted by human beings. The autonomous processing enhances the ability of the system to respond to a load increase, a failure, and the like, and the adjustability of the system with respect to the change in a business environment.
For example, in an Internet data center (hereinafter, referred to as an “IDC”), there is a requirement for an autonomous control for the optimum use of an IT resource. The IDC is a facility for taking care of an IT resource of a server, a storage, a network, and the like managed by a manager and supplies a connection line to the Internet, maintenance, operation service, and the like. The manager conducts business by offering service to a user using the IT resource.
FIG. 14 is a schematic view showing a system configuration of a general IDC. In the IDC, corporations A, B, and C that are managers manage IT resources 91, 92, and 93, respectively. Users 94 can use various services offered by the IT resources 91, 92, and 93.
In particular, the IDC capable of increasing/decreasing an IT resource managed by a corporation in accordance with, for example, needs of a user on demand is called an IDC of a utility system. By setting the IDC to be of a utility system, an IT resource of each manager can be used efficiently in accordance with a changing business environment. It is necessary for a corporation managing an IT resource to increase/decrease the IT resource efficiently so as to make the maximum profit with a minimum investment in the IT resource.
For example, as disclosed by JP 2003-124976 A, a method for effectively using an IT resource on demand has been proposed. According to this method, when the load of a user varies in a data center, the assignment of a resource with respect to the user is dynamically changed in accordance with the load.